Electromyograph biofeedback as an adjunct to standard psychiatric treatment

The effectiveness of electromyograph (EMG) biofeedback training was studied among 2 groups of psychiatric patients, and a control group of normal subjects. Both the psychiatric patients and the normal subjects received 6 sessions of training in deep muscle relaxation and biofeedback. The schizophrenic and psychoneurotic patients had significantly lower ratings for pathological symptomatology and abnormal behavior and all groups significantly reduced their level of muscle tension following the treatment; the schizophrenics and normals displayed significantly greater reductions than the psychoneurotic patients. The length of hospitalization for the 2 groups of patients in the study was lower than for similar patients who received standard psychiatric treatment but no biofeedback training. These results suggest that EMG training can be a beneficial adjunctive treatment for severely disturbed patients.